An opportunity in direct response television
by Janet Tonner, President, Direct Donor TV
Three weeks ago, Nick talked about how digital advertising is having a moment: nonprofits are seeing increased effectiveness at lower cost. The data is on fundraising DRTV and we’re seeing the same thing. There’s a positive perfect storm right now: increased viewership, decreasing prices, and stable or improving response.
Increased viewership: I know I’m watching a bit more now that we are housebound. According to Nielsen, TV viewership is up over 60% year-over-year. This is most pronounced in channels with news or escapist fare:
– CNN is up 170% year-over-year
– Lifetime is up 68%
– Fox News is up 45%
– BET is up 42%
– TLC is up 38%
But more important for donor acquisition is the behavior of older Americans. There, the top 15 most-watched channels as of last week (by minutes watched per iSpotTV) splits into three basic categories:
– Comfort/feel-good programming: Hallmark (3), Hallmark Movies and Mysteries (4), Lifetime Movies (5), Investigation Discovery (6), Inspiration (7), ION (9), USA (10), Oxygen (11), Disney Channel (13)
– News: Fox News (2), MSNBC (8), CNN (14)
– Spanish language: Univision (1), UniMas (12), Telemundo (15)
All three categories are generally positive ones from a DRTV perspective. These channels generally work better for fundraising than, for example, sports programming (ESPN is down 60% YoY). And people aren’t just on a single screen: web browsing has increased by 70% and social media engagement has increased 61%. That means that when your ad comes on, people have a device ready to act. It also shows the power of a multichannel campaign where digital ads support DRTV and vice versa.
Decreasing prices: According to the IAB, ad spending has decreased:
– 38 percent in digital ads
– 41 percent on TV
– 45 percent on radio
– 43 percent in print publications
– 51 percent on billboards
This means lower ad prices. We are seeing rates dropping for some networks by 30 to 50%. This has not translated to streaming services and over-the-top, as the increase in cord-cutting and viewership has meant advertisers are increasing their spend.
But lower prices and increased viewership wouldn’t be enough if results weren’t keeping up. Thankfully, we are seeing:
Stable or improving results: Here’s what we’ve seen in recent weeks:
– Cost per Phone Lead is down 11.2%
– Cost per Web Visit is down by 51.7%
– Cost to Acquire a Monthly Donor is down by 13.2%
Anecdotally, call center reps are saying that callers are reporting seeing ads for the first time; this is likely true given increased viewership and changing viewership patterns.
In short, the flight of for-profit advertisers from your television sets means an opportunity for nonprofits to do ads that highlight the increased need that COVID-19 is creating for your vital missions. And, as with digital advertising, this window is likely temporary.
If you’d like to learn more about DRTV, feel free to drop me a line at jtonner@directdonortv.com. And if you are looking to get more out of your PSAs during this time, our sister company 1st Degree can help you.
Janet